Rig a Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A for external power?

Frequently asked questions regarding powering your pedal.
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Cableaddict
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Post by Cableaddict »

I have a Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A.

As you know, it runs on one 1.5v battery, and has no psu jack.

I'd like to mod it to run off my pedalboard power, and was thinking about simply adding a 2.1 mm dc jack, then wiring that to the internal battery leads with a resistor inline.

- But now I'm wondering, would this cause a grounding issue with the rest of my rig? Is the Fuzz-Tone circuit simlar to the Fuzz Face, in that the chassis is positive?

Any ideas on how to accomplish what I want?


-thanks.

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bangerang101
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Post by bangerang101 »

Yeah, I would imagine as long as you wire it up for positive ground, and your using a positive ground power supply... Also, depending on how much room you have in the enclosure, you could build a charge pump that converts - gnd to + gnd power.

I guess you could use a voltage divider to get 1.5v from a 9v source and use a charge pump to get + gnd power from a negative gnd source... Check out http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/R ... adRage.pdf , this is a great chargepump layout and board you can purchase from Brian of Madbeanpedals, or etch your own w/ the pcb image file.

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Hides-His-Eyes
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Post by Hides-His-Eyes »

I'd be more inclined to get the voltage down with some series diodes if I were you.
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bangerang101
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Post by bangerang101 »

The LM317 is a voltage regulator and can regulate down to 1.2V using two resistors and a couple of filter caps. You can use this calculator, http://www.whatcircuits.com/lm317-calculator-v2/ , to find 2 resistor values you would need to get 1.5v output. IDK, seems like a pretty simple solution... of coarse, I'm not good w/ the finer details of electronics either, so maybe if someone else wants to chime in on this.

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Hides-His-Eyes
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Post by Hides-His-Eyes »

I didn't realise the 317 went so low; that's a great solution.
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kzustang
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Post by kzustang »

I am also here on the same mission:
I built my own version of a Maestro Fuzz Tone based on the FZ-1 and FZ-1A. It is a mixture between the two and :
1. it's PNP Germanium with positive ground
2. Uses 1.5V with a single AA battery.

I would like to use my regular -9V charge pump and to reduce the voltage in the circuit down to 1.5V.
The problem is that both voltage dividers and series resistors managed to get the voltage down but the circuit oscilates like crazy and the current and voltage are not regulated and keep fluctuating when the knobs are tweaked.

Please help, I really need a simple schematic of a 1.5V regulator or a -1.5V regulator to do the job.

Thanks,
Doron
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K. Zustang

create something greater, something uncontainable. Make sure you are at a constant motion forward...

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danielhjerppe
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Post by danielhjerppe »

Hi!

I just built a Maestro FZ-1 FUZZ TONE to a friend and he didn't wan't to use 2x 1,5V AA batteries (which I have in my original).

At first I tried to use a LM350T voltage regulator to get +9V to +3V which I ran into the 7660S but this lover voltage caused the oscillator whine to drop down to audible levels.

So after some trial and error I got something together that works for me. It's a 7660S inverter giving -9V to a LM337T negative voltage inverter which outputs -3V.

So here's a quick vero layout that I just built so it's "verified". Do take it with a grain of salt as I'm more of a trial and error guy when it comes to electronics, don't really understand why things work when they do :) I'm open to suggestions if you have a better or more elegant solution!

With some adjustment of the resistors R1 and R2 you should probably get down to -1.5 V.


And credit where credit's due, I copied the 7660S inverter section directly from IvIarks vero at tagboardeffects.blogspot.fi

-Daniel
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-3vpsu.jpg

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